Opportunity and Circumstance
by DeathSprite
Summary: Rating to change later as warranted. RanKen. Aya loses his sight on a mission. How will he cope?
1. Chapter One

Well, this story kind of came about because of all the RanKen fics I've read where one of them goes blind. It's always Ken, and there always seems to be a happy ending. I think it would be a better story if Aya lost his sight. Mmm... angst. And let me warn you, there will be no happy ending. At least, not in the sense of Aya miraculously getting his sight back. Complain if you want, flame if you want, but I'm just trying to come up with a tad more realistic idea. Not to say those other stories aren't good, though. Some are great. You should read them. Cheyne's especially.  
  
Title: Opportunity and Circumstance  
Author: DeathSprite  
Email: smleap47x@hotmail.com  
Homepage: http://www.uzu-swirl.net/limitedcreativity  
Warnings: Eventual yaoi and shounen-ai, language, possibly some graphic imagery, angst  
Spoilers: Aya's past, Omi's past, maybe something else. Not sure yet.  
Pairing: RanKen. Did you have to ask?  
Disclaimer: I have an Aya and Ken that live in my head. They talk to me. I talk back. Do you think any case involving me would hold up in court?  
  
Kudou Youji grinned as he treaded lightly down the corridor. Guards easily dispatched, he was now on his way to rendezvous with Aya, and the target. Omi had surveillance and Ken -- Youji smirked -- Ken was stuck on perimeter guard. Usually Youji was given that terribly entertaining duty, but this time --  
Youji was brought up short as the blade of a katana descended to block his way, scant centimeters from his throat.  
"You should be more careful," a low voice growled. Youji relaxed as Aya stepped out of the shadows, lowering the blade. "I could hear you coming all the way down the hall."  
Youji huffed, annoyed by Aya's superior attitude. "Saa ... sorry I don't have your cats' feet, oh silent one." Aya ignored him, and they set off down the hall.  
  
More than a dozen floors below them, Ken shifted position slowly, trying to keep his muscles from stiffening. Nothing had happened in the 15 minutes he'd been sitting there, and he was itching for action.  
Ken froze. It looked like he might be getting his action. Twin pairs of headlights pierced the darkness, signs of two jeeps heading his way.  
Crouching out of the line of sight of the approaching trucks, Ken pushed the call button on his radio. "There are two jeeps coming straight for the guardhouse, Bombay."  
"Don't engage, Siberian. Our timetable doesn't account for them, but we don't have time, either. Keep an eye on them, try to ID them. Abysynnian, Balinese, continue with target." Omi cut the connection.  
  
Youji cursed as he and Aya picked up their pace. They were 3 minutes away from the target now -- no time to turn back. The radio crackled its alarm again, and Ken's voice came through a second time, now more urgently.  
"There's about 16 of them, heading up the stairs. They're all armed, you need to finish and get out!"  
Omi's voice cut in. "Looks like they're after our target -- Abysynnian, Balinese, five of them are headed your way! You've got 5 minutes to get out of the building. If you contact, fight. But don't seek out."  
Youji nodded, not having the breath to speak, or to care that Omi couldn't see him. Compliance was not an option.  
They reached the target. Opening the office door, the slimy businessman turned to greet them.  
"I see you're --" His eyes widened. "You're not the cli--" He was cut short as Aya thrust his sword through his sternum, ending his life.  
Omi's voice sounded in the comm again, frantic. "Abysynnian, Balinese! They're right behind you! They --" The comm shut off with an ominous click.  
Youji and Aya turned. Approaching silently from the shadows were five dark forms. There was a momentary pause, and then the fight began.  
Three of them launched themselves at Youji, and he stepped back, throwing his wire out to catch one of them around the neck, choking the life out of him. Out of the corner of his eye, he managed to glimpse Aya once or twice, holding his own against two impressive swordsmen. He concentrated on his own fight using his advantage of distance to avoid the blades coming after him. The second attacker swung low, faked an attack to the left to attempt a kick at Youji's midsection. He danced narrowly out of the way, wrapped his wire around the attacker's leg and jerked, sending him to the floor with a broken leg. He barely had time to finish him off before the last man came after him in a dead-on charge. He dodged at the last minute, whipping the wire around the man's neck and letting his own momentum cut off his air.  
Heart beating quickly, he turned to Aya, only to find him faring not as well. He'd dispatched one fighter, but the other appeared to be just as skilled with a katana as the redhead, and was pressing his every advantage. Just as Youji turned, the swordsman was finishing a jump that placed him behind Aya. The assassin whirled around, but even as Youji sent out his wire, he knew it was too late for either of them to stop the attack.  
The blade descended on Aya, aimed at his neck. With the speed and strength behind it, it would certainly slice right through his jugular.  
Youji rushed forward, yanking viciously on his wire as it somehow managed to miraculously slide around the neck of the shady killer. The blade slowed as its wielder began to choke, but still continued its deadly descent until it finally ended in a crimson spray of blood and both Aya and the dark figure fell.  
  
Panicked, Youji didn't bother to attempt to stop the flow of blood, he simply grabbed Aya and ran, pounding down the stairs rather than wait for the elevators. He reached the ground floor agonizing minutes later and ran even faster to the rendezvous point, hoping against hope that the lack of radio contact was a fluke and he wasn't the only one left alive.  
A small amount of relief crept into him as he caught sight of the car, occupied by both his fellow Weiss members. He put on a last desperate burst of speed as Ken opened the door to the van, trying not to think of how it was probably already too late for his precious burden, a dead weight in his arms.  
"They used an EMP to knock out security, and it caught the radios as well. We were just lucky the car was out of range." Omi said, only turning to face them as Ken cried out.  
"Holy shit, Aya!" Ken exclaimed as he saw Youji, and helped him place the downed assassin in the back seat of the car. "Is he dead?"  
"The bastard was aiming for his throat. He --" Youji paused as his inspection of Aya now took him further up.  
"Oh shit. His eyes..." 


	2. Chapter Two

Come on, people! Feedback, please! (pulls sad face)  
Same warnings and stuff as last time. Same disclaimer -- not mine, no money.  
//flashback//  
/dream/  
*thoughts*  
  
He awoke, slowly, to the sound of voices. Murmured, he could only hear snatches of the conversation. He strained to identify the voices.  
"...what he's like now..."  
"react if you tell him..."  
"...yourself..."  
"...rest of his life..."  
He must have moved some part of his body wrong, because sudden pain shot through his body. He was unaware of making any noise, but someone was next to him, holding his hand.  
"Aya--" It was Ken.  
"What's going on?" he asked tensely. There was a bandage around his head, and he couldn't see through it.  
"Aya, the mission... You--" He sounded hesitant.  
Youji broke in. "Hell, Ken, just tell him. Aya, you're blind."  
He heard Ken stand. "Youji! What the hell do you think --"  
Aya struggled to sit up. He yanked his hand away from Ken. "I don't believe you. Get the hell out of my room." He stopped as he felt hands on his shoulders restraining him.  
"First, believe it. Youji shouldn't have said it so bluntly, but it's true." It was Ken, and he was angry. "And second, you're in my room. About 2 inches away from the wall." Aya was pushed back down onto the bed. Distantly he heard Ken telling Youji and Omi to leave the room, and the closing of a door.  
Ken came back over to him with a sigh, and Aya felt the bandages being lifted from his head. It was dark. He tried to blink his eyes, but found he could barely move them. His eyes felt strange.  
"The attacker -- we never found out who he was --" Ken said apologetically, "missed your throat, but got you right across the eyes. They were both burst, and there was a lot of damage to your nose as well.The doctors had to totally remove your eyes -- they were ruined. They put in glass eyes." He hesitated.   
"It's -- it's not that noticeable. They did a little reconstructive surgery. And your eyelids got pretty torn up, so they've only got about half their normal strength." Ken waited, but Aya didn't respond. He continued. "Kritiker's not dropping you, don't worry. They've got special policies for agents disabled through duty. You'll stay with us, and get paid the same. And they'll still take care of your sister."  
Aya jerked upright. "How did you --" He paused. "She won't --"  
"We always do background checks on our new teammates," Ken explained. "I did the research on you, Ran, and had looked into the explosion at your father's office. That's how I found out."  
Aya stopped listening to Ken for a moment. Nothing. He had nothing left as his own. He had no strength of his own, no power. He vaguely heard Ken inform him that he was going out to talk to Omi and Youji and he'd be back soon, but he paid him no attention.  
Aya simply lay there, listening to the ticking clock, ticking away the minutes of his wasted life.  
The dull sound filled his ears and he fell asleep.  
/The room he was in was dark. But there was something at the far end of it. What?  
"Nii-san!" A plaintive, familiar voice called.  
"Aya!" She was at the far end of the room, waiting for him. He started towards her.  
But with every step he took, it got darker, and the room appeared to be getting longer. Soon he could not see at all.  
"Aya-chan!" He called. She answered, but her voice seemed so far away. "Ran! Why won't you help me? Do you hate me?"  
"No!" He tried to shout. "I love you, Aya!" But his voice would not work either. He blundered uselessly through the dark, searching for his sister. Suddenly, he stumbled over something. Gingerly, he felt the cold thing with his hands. Horror and grief filled him as he recognized his sister's features beneath his hands, her ... blood ... running down her neck...  
"No!" He gasped, his voice working now, too late. "No!" He felt hands on his shoulders, dragging him away from his sister, and he fought against them./  
"Aya!" The hands were Ken's, shaking him awake. "Aya, wake up! You're having a nightmare." Aya stopped struggling. He lifted a hand to his cheeks, feeling the tears there.  
"I'm so useless..." he muttered. "These damned eyes -- all they can do now is cry."  
He was startled when Ken's arms wrapped around him. "You're not useless, Aya. I'm sorry, this was way too much information to dump on you so quickly. But you're not useless," Ken said fiercely, not seeming to mind that Aya's tears were soaking through his shirt. "Things are going to change for you, yes, but they're changing for Youji and Omi and I too. None of us have ever dealt with something like this before. But we're going to help you, Aya. That's what friends do."  
Ken continued to hold Aya as he cried, until finally he was asleep. Carefully, he disentangled himself from the older man, and returned downstairs, trying to work the tingles out of half-asleep muscles in his legs.  
"We're gonna have a really hard time of this," he greeted Omi and Youji, who were still in the kitchen. "I went up to check on him and found him having a nightmare. He's already convinced he's useless." He paused to pop open a can of soda. "Like the doctors said, he's going to have to really change how he acts around people if he's going to recover at all."  
Youji nodded. "And knowing Aya, that's going to be no easy task."  
"Yeah." Ken agreed, recalling to hospital.   
//Youji sagged against the wall as the Kritiker doctors took Aya from his arms. He looked down at his bloody clothes, and then to Omi and Ken, who were approaching with at least 20 papers each.  
"I think I'm going to get cleaned up. You two have fun with those forms."  
Ken rolled his eyes, but noticed with concern that his hands were shaking. He and Omi sat down, Omi explaining that since Kritiker had most info on file, this paperwork was different. Omi was filling out a mission report.  
Ken stared at his first paper. A psych evaluation. He ruffled through his stack. There were several of them. Worried, he started to read through them. He began to realize how little he knew about Aya.  
5 hours later, their paperwork long done -- even Youji, who'd finally returned with a stack of his own -- a Kritiker doctor approached them, introduced himself by a codename, and began to explain Aya's condition and its ramifications.  
"...You're going to want to watch him carefully in the upcoming months. You've all been briefed on psych, so you know what to look for. And don't hesitate to call. He's going to be extremely insecure, very self-conscious and withdrawn. Don't bully him, but stay persistent. And don't avoid the problem either. He'll resent anything that could possibly be construed as pity..."//  
"So I vote that you be the one that watches him, Ken."  
"Huh?" Ken only caught the last part of what Youji'd been saying. "Why do I have to?"  
"Because Omittchi's still got school, and I can't drag Aya around to all the places I go. A blind guy wouldn't enjoy them."  
"So I get stuck with him? I mean, not to be uncaring, but I've got stuff to do too. I can't exactly let him be the goalie when I go coach the kids!"  
"Just bring him to the park. The sun'll do him some good."  
"I --" Ken stopped. He knew Youji was right, and he was making a pointless argument. But Aya was just no fun. And now... "Fine. But what are we going to do with him? Business-wise."   
They paused to consider. Finally, Omi ventured, "We could stick him with research and strategy."  
Youji nodded. "That's about all he can do now. Which'll be hard for him -- he was always so active."  
"Yeah," Omi agreed. "I was in his room once to check for bugs, and he's also got a lot of books."  
Ken swirled his half-empty soda, watching the bubbles fizz. "What about cover? Whether or not we keep him out of the shop, there'll be questions. And if we keep him out, we'd still need something for him to do."  
"Well with the 'wonders' of today's plastic surgery, there's no trace of any damage. The easiest thing would be to pass it off as something congenital, like retinal detachment." Omi's suggestion sounded good. It wouldn't save Aya and sympathy from the girls, but it would work.  
"But what would he do as a job?" Youji reminded. "There's not much a florist can do without seeing."  
"There's not much anyone can do without being able to see," Ken remarked. "He was the one who did the most work in the shop, too."  
Omi shrugged. "I don't know what to say. I guess ... the only thing we can really do is to leave it 'til tomorrow."  
Ken looked at the clock as he finished his soda. 1:20. "Today, actually. I guess I'll talk to Aya when he wakes up tomorrow. Hopefully he won't be up all night with nightmares."  
They quietly climbed the stairs, each going to their respective rooms. Ken checked on the figure lying on the futon on his floor -- fast asleep.  
*Aya, you're lucky to have people who'll support you. I just hope you'll let us.* 


	3. Chapter Three

Wow, this took longer to get out than I thought. Sorry 'bout that. I've had a bunch of projects, and finals are in a couple weeks. I got this section done, tho. It's a little short.  
  
Aya woke up to the sound of Ken's voice.   
"C'mon, Aya, time to get up! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and Youji's bought breakfast."  
Ken sounded cheerful. Aya was not. Sitting in total darkness, resenting Ken's comment about the sun, all he could do was coldly ask, "What time is it?"  
"7:15."  
Aya scowled. "You let me sleep in."  
Ken patted him on the shoulder firmly, keeping his hand there. "You needed it." Ken paused, and Aya heard him stand. "Come on." Ken's hand grasped him, and helped haul him to his feet.  
"There's ... um, some clothes on this chair. I'll be back in five minutes." Aya waited until he heard the door open and close. He fingered the shirt for a moment, then began to get dressed.  
Five minutes later Ken returned. He said nothing negative, so Aya was sure he appeared fine as they walked down the hall.  
"You, um, need to do anything in the bathroom?" Ken asked nervously, pausing for a moment.   
"I'm fine." They continued.  
They made it down the stairs without incident. All of them had walked through the house in the dark, so Ken wasn't too worried. He was also aware of Aya's need for independence, so he limited his guidance to a hand set casually on his shoulder.  
"Hey, Youji!" He called. "What's for breakfast?" They entered the kitchen.  
"Hey guys." Youji greeted, waiting for Aya to sit. "I got bagels. Whole wheat, blueberry, cinnamon, poppy seed." They each claimed a bagel, and silence reigned for a few moments. Then Ken broached the subject that Aya had been dreading.  
"Aya, are you coming down to the shop with us?"  
Aya stiffened. "Why should I? It's not like I could do anything down there."  
"Aya, you can't just stay up here forever. Besides, we had to tell the girls why you were missing."  
Aya scowled. "What did you --"  
Ken interrupted him. "Aya, you need to do something. I just can't see you sitting up here all day. Just come down to the shop with us."  
Aya kept silent. He could feel the tension in the air, and could imagine the nervous glances the others would be exchanging.   
A chair squeaked slowly. "I have to get going guys." Omi spoke. "I have to go to school now, Aya," he said loudly. "I'll see you later." The door slammed.  
Aya's scowl deepened. "I'm not deaf, dammit."  
There was a nervous shuffle, then Ken's voice as dishes clattered. "Sorry. Omi's ... he doesn't really know how to handle this. I'll try and talk to him."  
"I'll take care of it, Kenken. You've got enough on your plate." Aya smelled cigarette smoke.  
"Thanks, Yohj." The dishes stopped. "Aya, I'm sorry. We're all worried about you, and I don't think sitting around doing nothing is going to be good for you." There was a slight pause; Aya thought he heard a sigh. "But if you really want, you can stay up here." He heard Ken and Youji move towards the door. "If you need anything --" He shook his head. "OK. Someone will be up later." The door closed, leaving him alone.  
  
Downstairs, Youji looked at Ken carefully as he began to open up the shop. The younger boy looked tired and hassled.  
"Y'know, Ken ... maybe you should slow down. Ever since Aya was injured, you've been taking on more and more responsibilities. You're probably doing more than Omi or I. And now, you've volunteered to keep after Aya --"  
Ken turned on him. "I didn't choose to look after him, dammit! You forced that on me. And as for all the other shit I do around here, if I don't do it, who will?" He was leaning over the counter at Youji, fists clenched. He glanced out the window, seeing the customers starting to enter the shop. His eyes fell from Youji's. "C'mon," he muttered. "We'll talk later." He walked off into the shop.  
  
Ken kept away from Youji as much as he could for the rest of the morning. His mood was dark, and he was having trouble concentrating.   
"Damn!" He tossed away the clippers. "Youji, you know where the good wire clippers are?" Youji shook his head as he worked on the display by the window. Ken tossed his apron over the counter. "Be right back," he muttered.  
Ken bounded up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He really just wanted to get away from Youji. The older man had been on his back a lot lately and it was getting on his nerves.  
He entered the apartment, out of reflex calling, "Aya, have you seen the wire clippers?"  
A soft answer floated out from the kitchen, "Last I saw them was when Omi was upgrading his computer. Check under his desk." Ken stopped, pausing as he realized that it truly was the last time Aya had, and ever would see the clips.  
"Thanks," he said quietly, and moved to Omi's room. He found the clippers under Omi's desk, and moved to return downstairs.  
Passing the kitchen he noticed Aya, still sitting at the table. He approached.  
"Aya, you haven't been here since breakfast, have you?"  
Aya nodded once sharply.  
Ken waited a moment, but he got no further response from Aya. He sighed in exasperation.  
"Come on, Aya, you can't just sit here all day! Or the rest of your life, for that matter."  
Aya grunted. "There's no point in me getting up, Hidaka. I can't do anything; I'm just a burden. I shouldn't even be here."  
Ken growled. "What the hell do you mean by that? You're just going to sit here wasting away, feeling forry for yourself? That's not you, Aya."  
"What the hell do you know?!" Aya yelled, slamming his fists on the table. "Dammit Ken, you think you know all about me! You don't know what's happening to me! I don't want your pity, and I DON'T need your help!"  
"Well then maybe those of us who are concerned for you should stop trying!" Ken exploded, jerking the door open, pushing past the entering Omi, and thundering down the stairs.  
  
Omi stared down at Aya. The tension was thick in the air -- Omi hadn't heard their conversation through the soundproof door, and had been caught by surprise when Ken had slammed into him.   
"Aya," he asked slowly, "what happened?"  
Aya sighed, leaning his forehead against his fingertips. "I don't know, he --" His voice, already soft, broke off. He turned his face away, the shade around him seeming to darken.  
Omi shifted uncomfortably, unnerved by Aya's behavior. "I'm going to go downstairs ... see if Youji needs any help." He slipped back out the door, leaving Aya alone in the dark. 


End file.
